Publicis Chief On Data Mining; Extreme Reach To Buy Talent Partners

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Lévy Bursts

Writing for The Drum, Publicis Groupe chief Maurice Lévy pens a consumer-first think piece on data mining. “The consumer could rightfully ask ‘it’s my information, why should anyone else make money out of it?’ and claim for a share of the associated revenues,” Lévy writes. “Some startups already offer value for personal data. Though the internet model is built on advertising and data collection for (mainly) free services, it doesn’t mean that companies should be the only beneficiaries.” Read on.

TV Tech Merger

Extreme Reach, a video ad delivery company, will buy TV ad services provider Talent Partners in an equity and debt deal. Talent Partners monitors TV networks to help advertisers and agencies place and measure TV and digital ads and manage royalties. As Extreme Reach CEO John Roland tells the WSJ, TV marketers have long had tools to understand how actors, artists and musicians receive royalties from TV advertising, but connecting those compensation models to digital transactions is more complex. “As the digital market grows, the talent isn’t going to want to get one flat fee when that commercial could be running 10 billion times,” Roland said. Read on.

Gannett Shutters Blinq

Blinq Media, the social ads company acquired by Gannett three years ago for an estimated $40 million, has shut down. Atlanta Business Chronicle reports, “BLiNQ’s remaining roughly 30 employees were informed of the shutdown at an abruptly called meeting May 27, where they were offered severance packages, according to a source.” Story. It was just two years ago that Blinq boasted 60 employees and a plan to align Blinq with Gannett’s local circular. AdExchanger coverage. More trouble in PMD paradise.

TV Down Under

Australia’s Multi Channel Network (MCN) launched a private marketplace for linear TV ad buying in the $4 billion TV ad market. About 1% (or $40 million) of MCN’s TV revenue went through the platform in May, and the company expects that volume to grow to 5% by the end of the year. If true, that means buyers will transact $200 million in Aussie “programmatic” TV this year. MediaPost has more.

Europe’s Privacy Barbs

The Belgian Privacy Commission, a European privacy watchdog group, is dragging Facebook to court over the data collection enabled by its plug-in network. Market competitiveness underlies heightened consumer privacy concerns that American tech firms are facing in Europe. According to a Quartz report Monday, Facebook is worth more than all of European tech’s $1 billion-plus companies combined. Tech.eu has the full story.

Stalled Buy Buttons

Buy buttons might be the new “must have” for social platforms, but speed bumps loom, as Re/code’s Jason Del Rey reports. Integrating inventory and payment systems from retailers is just one of the many challenges Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest could face with click-to-purchase functionality, according to Del Rey. And while Twitter and Facebook have a jump on other social networks, neither firm is advancing its buttons at full tilt quite yet. Full story at Re/code.

Kids Come To Cannes

In the run-up to a presentation at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, Snapchat chief Evan Spiegel is gunning for brand dollars. He tells Adweek Snapchat’s privacy policy means the company doesn’t collect the kind of user data Facebook has at its disposal, pinning that fact as an opportunity for brands to avoid “the creepy factor.” “We’re going to stay away from building really extensive profiles on people because that’s just bad and doesn’t feel very good,” he said. More.

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